SURVEY – COMMENT: A survey commissioned by a pet food manufacturer, I and love and you, conducted by OnePoll produced some extraordinary information. Perhaps the most outstanding is the information in the title to this article. It seems astonishing that more than four out of ten people or persons who adopt a cat do so to find out whether they are ready for a child. Can that be true? What about loving cats? What if they find out that they are not ready for a child? Do they hand back the cat to the rescue organisation? And if they decide that they are ready to have a child, when they have that child do they give up their cat because they think cats and children don’t get on? It all seems very strange to me and not a good starting point when adopting a cat.
Another strange piece of information that came out of this survey is that the average pet parent has 231 “mini-panics” annually. This is just over four panic attacks every week. So what are these panic attacks about? Well, the survey came up with these reasons regarding companion animal food digestion: irregular bowel movements, not eating normally, poop of the wrong consistency, eating something that they should not have and not being able to find their pet in the house. On each occasion more than four out of ten pet owners had these sorts of panic attacks for these reasons.
It is hard to believe that cat and dog owners can be that anxious. Do you have minor panic attacks about your caretaking of your cat or dog companion? The only time I felt concerned and genuinely worried was one I lost my cat because he returned back to the ‘home range’ that he knew as a kitten. This happened after we moved home but we only moved about half a mile which allowed him to return back to his previous “home”.
Almost 60% of the participants said that they were aware that their pet’s proop is a good indicator of their digestive health and a little less than this percentage said that they pay attention to their companion animal’s poop. In order to assess their companion animal’s poop they do research about it on the Internet and 24% of respondents did this, with 10% of them looking up information every day.
Pre-and probiotic pet food is popular because 48% look for pet food containing these ingredients in order to support their companion animal’s digestive health.
58% wanted to take the best possible care of their companion animal as they are part of the family. That seems like a very low number to me. It implies that the remaining 42% are not interested about providing the best possible care! I don’t get that one.
In line with the concept of treating a companion animal as a member of the family and as a child, 35% of pet parents called their child by their pet’s name. In other words the boundary between human child and animal ‘child’ is blurred. And when they do mix up their names they do so on average 17 times per month.
29% of participants gave their companion animals birthday parties, 24% had them wearing matching outfits and 21% said that they watched shows together. 41% said that they celebrated Father’s Day and Mother’s Day with their companion animal. They also bought them holiday presents (36%), potty trained them (28%) and sleep trained them (22%).
Clearly the law is well behind the actuality on the ground because the law treats companion animals as human possessions and as no more valuable in terms of the emotional connection than the flatscreen television in the corner of the living room. There is an extraordinary ‘obsession’ with digestion and poop. Perhaps this is because it is one area of health that concerned cat and dog owners can control.
Source: People via MSN on the internet.
Below are some articles on cat adoption:
